Deadland
by toadywoad
Summary: Keroro and the gang are trapped in a terrifying dimension, where they have to solve the deadly mystery of the land and escape, before it kills them.  rated T for a very violent reason
1. Fall from grace

AN: This'll be depressing, gory, probably crappy, most likely nothing like Keroro Gunso, and –oh yes- will involve character death (or will it~~~?) Dislike, don't read and just do not flame- you just make yourself look silly. POVs will flit about a bit but I'll try to keep it in third person. Please tell me if I need to change the rating or tone down the violence.

And now- since I can't write openings- let's crack on and drop head first into it! (who likes long chapters?)

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><p><span>Chapter one: Fall from grace<span>

_-BANG-FLASH-CRUNCH-_ow.

Ow. No, really- _Ow._ Keroro peeled his face off the rough, rocky ground. _Rough, rocky ground? _The green sergeant had been happily constructing a MSM -03 Gogg in his room- his room with no rough rocky ground to implant his face in. And it was red. Kind of a Giroro red, a dried blood red. And from the indentation his face had left in the rough, rocky, dried blood red ground, Keroro must've fallen a great height. Not too great to kill him on impact, but great enough to make every bone in his Keronian body to shudder hideously before settling back down in their original positions.

"S...Sergeant?" The most familiar voice to Keroro mumbled from somewhere behind him.

"Gero? Fuyuki-dono!" Keroro raced- well, stumbled quickly really, he was in far too much pain to 'race' anywhere- over to his best friend, laying face down on the rough, rocky, dried blood ground, with a similar indent where his head had landed "Are you alright, Fuyuki-dono?"

The frail boy tried to lift his frailer body, but by how his fresh face writhed the second his tried to move, he must've been in immense pain "Sergeant...are you hurt?"

"A...A little bit, it feels like we fell pretty far..."

"Do you- _ow-_" Fuyuki groaned, getting into a kneeling position to look at his friend "Do you know where we are?"

"No...but," Keroro looked around, looked at the rough, rocky, dried blood red ground, looked at the mucky, oily sky with muckier, oilier, angry, rolling clouds, looked at how they met at the almost never-ending horizon. Jagged mountains- or what looked like jagged mountains- jutted out of the terrain in the distance, like big, black, ugly silhouettes on an uglier background "...Fuyuki-dono, I don't think we're on Pekopon anymore."

"Kukuku...That's an understatement if ever I've heard one, Captain." Fuyuki and Keroro turned quickly to where the voice sounded behind them.

Kururu, along with Saburo and Dororo and Koyuki and Tamama and Momoka and Giroro and Natsumi- _everyone_ was almost right behind them, laying painfully on the ground, as if they had fallen from the sky just as Keroro and Fuyuki had. Which, most likely, they did.

"_Ow..._So where the hell are we?" Giroro growled, heaving himself up groggily, before clambering to Natsumi's side. He was holding a rifle and a small pistol, he'd probably been cleaning them before...whatever happened to make him suddenly fall out of a sky that he'd never seen before.

Kururu didn't look at him. The yellow amphibian's head was tilted downwards, but not in with the air of sinister surrounding him "I don't know." He admitted.

Those words- just three words- pretty simple words- felt like searing white hot swords shot clean through their stomachs.

"What..." Giroro sounded like he was shifting a huge lump in his throat, "what do you mean, '_don't know_'? Can't you find out?"

The next word was just one, less than before, and even simpler, felt more like a battalion of expert marksmen shot two thousand searing white hot swords and nails and lead straight through them;

"No."

Panic started to grip them, they'd spent less than two minutes in this..._place_, which they didn't know what it was, where it was, and if they didn't know what it was and where it was, how will they know how to get back? Saburo was the first one to say this.

"Can you get us back, Kururu?" His voice remained level and calm, but he was just as jittery on the inside as everybody else.

"I'm...kuku...not certain."

"_Why not_?" Natsumi got to her feet. Her voice was breaking, just slightly, enough to give away how _scared_ she was.

"Do you see a computer? Do you see my lab? In fact, apart from my smexy glasses , do you see _any piece of working technology_ right here?" They took a moment to gaze around the wasteland, already knowing the answer "Kuku, didn't think so."

"Well," Fuyuki licked his lips nervously, trying to think, "j-just because there isn't any technology _here_, it doesn't mean there isn't any technology in...this place."

"You're right Fuyuki-kun," Momoka smiled, becoming more and more reassured, "there must be a town or city here. This place can't have nothing living in it."

"And if they are intelligent, they will have some form of technology." Saburo reasoned.

"Even if there is no technology, a civilisation can be intelligent enough to have the compassion and aptitude to help us return home." Dororo added "Just look at ninja villages; no technology is required but the civilisations are just as teeming with intelligence as others are."

"Well, that's up for debate, kukukuu..."Kururu snickered, prompting rare cold looks from Dororo and Koyuki. Kururu adjusted his glasses on his face, and unseen to the others who thought they were just simple glass, altered the lens, silently zooming in like binoculars, but with no obvious change in appearance, apart from a slight twisting of the swirls.

"There's a glow in the distance," He commented, "probably from a campsite fire. Kukuku, our first sign of civilisation maybe...?"

"So let's get going already!" Giroro bellowed, still losing patience despite the new hope lighting in his chest.

"-_AHEM_-"Keroro cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention "I do believe that _I_ am the Sergeant, the _Platoon leader_. And as the Platoon leader, I do believe that _I_ am the one to decide and give orders...So, let's get going!"

"_Stupid frog_." Natsumi muttered under her breath, before setting off on their trek. She didn't know how long the trek was going to be, she didn't know how long she could last before it became too draining to put one foot in front of the other, she didn't know how long until Fuyuki lost all energy to even move, she didn't know if she'd find something, if she'd find anything, if they could help, if they couldn't, if she would ever get back home, what would happen if she didn't...but she pushed every little hideous 'not-knowing' to the extreme corner of her brain, ignoring it totally, and focus only on walking. Walking through the wasteland.

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><p>Fuyuki's side had an agonizing stitch tearing him apart from the inside. He held it while he stumbled along, panting heavily. They had been walking...God, he didn't even know how far he'd been walking. The glow from the possible campsite hadn't gotten any closer. Everyone else was panting and almost tripping over their feet too, so it had been a good distance, but he was suffering the most. Everyone's bones still ached from the long fall down. He wanted to ask how far they thought they had walked, but couldn't; he needed every scrap of oxygen to pump into his lungs just to keep him standing.<p>

"Are you alright, Fuyuki-kun?" Momoka asked, for the umpteenth time. Before, Fuyuki answered her with 'I'm fine' and a light-hearted smile. Now all he could do was shake his head and suck in more air to fuel the unnecessary movement. Suddenly-

"What the hell is that?"

Giroro's blunt (and somewhat wheezing) comment made everyone look towards what he was looking at. It was one of the mountains- well, the _silhouettes _from the distance looked like mountains, but up close where it wasn't shrouded in shadows, the mountains weren't mountains- just something much _weirder_.

It was half a pyramid, an Aztec pyramid as Fuyuki (despite his serious fatigue) ecstatically pointed out, made out of hundreds and hundreds of yellowy-brown stone steps, with cracks and crevices decorating it like an aged face. The other half, the top half, was the Statue of Liberty. The big green lady herself, neck, head and torch holding arm jutting out of the top of the pyramid like a green, infected toenail sticking out of an unhealthy toe. Where the pyramid ended and the almost quarter of the Statue started was a huge gouge-like gap, exposing the hollow of the Statue's head.

"How can...How can something from Earth be here?" Natsumi asked "I mean, it looks like they were ripped out of the ground and thrown together."

No one answered- no one knew the answer. "C-could the people who live here have carved it?" Momoka suggested, but the tone of her voice hinted to her own doubting.

"Doesn't look like it..." Fuyuki wheezed, taking the opportunity to double over and take in big lung-fuls of air "...If they had (_gasp_) carved it themselves then (_gasp_) they wouldn't've (_gasp_) had that big gap in the middle (_gasp_) or used both stone and (_gasp_) m-metal...(_gasp, gasp_)...and it's the designs are (_gasp_) exactly the same as the ones on (_gasp_) Earth..." His sentence finally out of his bone dry throat, Fuyuki fell to his knees, arms wrapped around his blazing waist.

"Fuyuki-dono! A-a-are you okay?" Keroro yelped, leaping to his side. Fuyuki didn't reply, just kept gasping and wheezing and trying not to die. Natsumi knelt beside her brother, gently rubbing his back.

"It's okay, just focus on breathing...It'll be okay." She told him calmly, over and over. She'd had to do this a few times before, thankfully only _few_ times, and knew that the only way to deal with it was to keeping him calm so he could breathe. If he kept calm, he could focus on breathing, and if he kept focusing on breathing, he wouldn't be focussing on how terrible he felt.

"...sorry...(_gasp_)...sorry, Nee-chan...rubbish stamina...(_gasp_)..." The mangled words dripped out of his throat.

"No, it's okay, you're fine. Just try to breathe." Natsumi said, patting his back. She became aware that everyone, frogs and friends, was kneeling down too. Their faces were concerned (not counting Kururu, whose face almost never changed) and Koyuki had pulled out a small bamboo tube filled with water from behind her, wherever ninjas keep their stuff.

"Here you go." She smiled, encouraging him to take it. Fuyuki pushed it away.

"N...No, thanks. I think I'm okay now..." He slowly stood back up. A small embarrassed blush had tinged his face. "S-sorry everyone..."

"You don't have anything to apologise for, Fuyuki-kun." Momoka replied almost immediately.

" Of course not." Saburo agreed "People've got different levels of stamina. And people would be total losers if they didn't accept that fact and get moody if their friend is out of breath and, well, they wouldn't have many friends left."

Fuyuki awkwardly brushed dust and dirt off of his trousers "Th-thanks guys..." He smiled meekly. No one, save his family, had reacted this... _nicely_ when he had completely lost all of his energy before. They would stand apart and watch awkwardly or with disdain while he struggled for breath. But his friends, his _great friends_, came to see if he was okay. And made him feel okay.

Giroro quickly scanned the area during the pause. More wasteland and the weird Pyramid of Liberty thing. "Since we've stopped, should we take a break here?"

"Yeah, that's a good idea..." Tamama replied "...Taaamaaa, my legs feel like they're about to fall off! What I wouldn't give for a cold shower!"

And then-

-_WHOOSH-_

Torrential rain spilled from the dark clouds like a waterfall. A freezing cold waterfall. So freezing cold in fact, that the moment an icy droplet touched their skin, it made everyone squeak in shock.

"**You **_**had**_** to say it, didn't ya, Tama-ko?**" Momoka yelled over the sheer _roar_ of the falling rain. Clothes were soon becoming sodden and plastered skin. For the humans, it wasn't a very enjoyable experience. For the Keronians, however, it was like a nice shower. Keroro cupped his hands to collect the water to throw into his face, fully appreciating the coolness.

"We have to get out of this rain!" Natsumi shouted, wiping her soaking hair out of her eyes. Just after she said that, Keroro began to notice that the rain was getting even colder. And the droplets were getting bigger. And harder. And falling faster. Until they were hitting him like little bullets.

"Oh great! _Hail!_" Giroro yelled, holding up his rifle like an umbrella "Now we _have _to get out of this!"

"We can go in there!" Dororo pointed to the odd Pyramid of Liberty, more specifically, pointed to the gap where they can crawl inside.

And so they sprinted up the stone steps. Climbing and sprinting and clambering and racing while the hail plummeted down. In the brief glances Natsumi snatched away from the steps to the sky, she noticed the hail stones getting even bigger- she swore she could see some as big as golf balls. And feel some whizz so close to her skin that she could feel the frozen air splitting. The golf ball hail stones hit the stone steps with such ferocious force that the impact smacked a hole into the stone and threw shards up into the air. "_It's like we're being bombarded._" Giroro thought as a big ball of ice shattered the stone to his left. "_It's been a long time since I've been bombed like this..._"

"Keep your heads down and keep running!" He yelled over his shoulder, keeping a close eye on the eruptions that were much too near Natsumi "We're almost under cover!"

Still looking over his shoulder, Giroro saw exactly what happened.

One extra large hail stone, a hail stone the size of a football, shot down out of the clouds with the speed of a fatally precise bullet. Straight down, so fast that he would've missed it if he blinked, straight down, straight onto the side of Saburo's head.

There was a -_SPLACK-_, a sudden spurt of red, and Saburo span from the force, falling and tumbling down the steps and his arms were flailing and there was a painful -_smack-_ with each step he rolled down. "SABURO-SENPAI!" Natsumi screamed, running back down the steps towards his tumbling body. Kururu let out a barely noticeable "_Tch!_" and ran down as well. Koyuki split off, leaping back down to help, and Dororo was just about to move as well and Fuyuki and Momoka had paused, weighing up whether they should help too until Giroro shouted "The others are helping- too many people and you'll get in the way, keep _moving_!" So they kept running and dodging deadly ice shells and prayed and begged and _begged_ that Saburo was okay and that he wasn't so hurt that he- and they kept running until they were finally, _finally_ at the clawed out gap and they climbed in, the humans having to give the Keronians a quick leg up before stretching up to get a hold of the cold green metal and heaving themselves up and into the cavern like head of Lady Liberty and it was cold and it was dark and the -_CLATTER-BANG-CLATTER-_ of the cascading hail filled the cavern noisily and Fuyuki looked back to see his sister and Koyuki hauling up the lifeless Saburo and Kururu was running in front of them and there was a big red mess on the side of Saburo's hat and then they finally, _finally_ made it to the gap and Koyuki let go of Saburo's body for a moment so she could jump into the head and pull up Saburo before helping Natsumi and Kururu just clamoured in of his own accord and they were finally, _finally_ out of the bombardment. But that tiny flicker of relief didn't last. Not for a heartbeat.

Koyuki helped Natsumi drag Saburo's body further into the head, further into the safety of the cavern and away from any stray shards of rock and hail. "Wh-What do we do? What- is he even breathing?" Natsumi blubbered. Kururu pushed passed and put his mitt on Saburo's throat.

"Pulse is fine. Breathing's okay. Head..." he carefully pulled of Saburo's slightly red hat "...could be better." Now that was certainly an understatement. There was a red gap in the side of his head, like the gap in the Statue of Liberty's, but red and wet and bruised but not bleeding anymore. But that didn't stop the soaking wet blonde hair being stained a dirty red colour. A colour kind of like the colour of dried blood. Kind of like the colour of the ground of this _place_.

Suddenly, Koyuki snatched the hat from Kururu's grip and ran to the opening of the head. She carefully- _very carefully_- reached out and, using the hat like a glove, picked up a hail stone sitting in the hole it made in its impact. And then she rushed back over to the still unmoving (except for the _barely_ rising and falling chest) and held the improvised ice pack just above the red red wound.

"This should keep the swelling down." Koyuki said. Her voice was jittery, but from the cold rain still clinging to her or from the fact she was holding a chunk of ice up to her friend's wet red wounded head in his stained red soggy hat.

From the touch of the frozen shard, Saburo flinched. He _flinched._ And then he gave a small mewling moan and tried to sit up. Then he opened his eyes. The friend everyone was scared was dead actually _opened his eyes._ Everyone, even _Giroro,_ let out a shaky, purely relieved breath that almost made them fall over.

"Nnnh...what happened?" He rasped, wincing from the throb in his skull.

"Kuuuukuku! You got pwnd by super hail, kuku!" Kururu sniggered.

Saburo sat up properly, holding the ice chunk up himself now "Yeah, it feels like it." He grinned. His weary blue eyes slowly moved to the opening in the head, to the view of the place with the rough, rocky, dried blood red ground and the mucky, oily sky with muckier, oilier, angry, rolling clouds with shards and chunks of hailing icy _death_ plummeting from them. "So, can we go home now?"

"Ku ku ku..."

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><p>review? :3<p> 


	2. A dream of three lions

Thanks for the review, Scanty-Kneesocks, and I'm...glad you appreciated the Saburoabuse ;) I might throw in a mix of pairings, most definitely DoroXkoyu, perhaps giroXnatsu, maaaayyybe fuyuXsabu (*is shot...with hail stones), but don't expect any declarations of undying love. Just a li'l bit of fluff here and there.

So sorry for the wait. You know..._life_.

Warning: this is a bloody long chapter, and unfortunately mostly filler, so if you skim-read, you won't miss much.

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><p><span>Chapter two: A dream of three lions<span>

_The trio of beasts slowly, arrogantly circled the pyramid. They knew, _knew,_ that their food and sport were just moments away. No one moved, probably no one could move. Except Koyuki. She held her own against the monsters, fighting and beating and slashing their faces with her knives like the beasts slashed at hers with their claws. Dororo tried to move his legs, he tried to move anything, he _needed_ to move something. He needed to rush to his friend's side, needed to fight with her, needed to save her. But he couldn't- _just couldn't. _Fear, fear, _cursed fear _had petrified him to the spot on which he stood, as it had done with everyone else- except the brave Koyuki. _

_And then she fell, the fight lost, and the three beats ate to their fill and Dororo still couldn't move._

"_NO!_"

"Dororo?" Koyuki was right next to her frantic friend, hand on his shoulder. Dororo had bolted upright, breathing heavily and raggedly, the fragments of the nightmare still clinging to his shaking eyes. Everyone else had been woken by his scream from their few hours of rest they managed to snatch after the hail storm passed. "Are you alright, Dororo?"

The blue ninja wiped the sweat from his clammy forehead with the back of his clammier hand "Just...just a...a _terrible_ dream..." He finally was able to say.

"Well, I was having a rather nice dream." Keroro grumbled "Thank you so much for ending it..."

"Sergeant..." Fuyuki dismayed. He sat up and rolled his neck, stretching the aching muscles. Napping inside a metal statue wasn't exactly comfortable.

Koyuki patted Dororo's shoulder kindly "It's alright now, Dororo. The dream's over and you're awake now." She smiled reassuringly.

He didn't look back at her. He might've been awake, but the horrendous memorises were still fresh in his mind, and every glimpse of anything, anyone around him, rekindled those memorises. Trying to do _something_ to focus his mind on something else, he tugged lightly at his mask. It clung to his face uncomfortably, still sodden from the rain shower hours ago. "Did we sleep in soaking clothes?" He enquired, loudly enough for everyone in the head to hear even if they were half asleep.

With that, everyone shifted, testing and feeling their closes to see if they were still soaked. Which everyone's were. "_Great,_" Natsumi sighed irritatedly, "the last thing we need is to all get colds and fevers."

"Maybe if we build a fire, we could dry off?" Fuyuki suggested, pulling his jumper sleeve and wringing it out.

"I didn't see anything we could use," Giroro replied, "no trees or plants...I didn't even see anything we could use for food."

That hit everyone hard. Being a little damp and chilly was one thing; slowly starving was something entirely more agonizing.

"I'll go out and look for some." Koyuki suggested with a smile. Dororo watched his friend stand and walk to the edge. A heavy, hard lump trapped any words halfway up his throat. Mercifully, Natsumi called out to her "Don't go too far, Koyuki-chan. Just around the pyramid." so Dororo didn't have to force himself to. But watching her disappear out of the head still wrenched his gut. "_Move...Move..._" Finally, _finally_, Dororo moved.

"I...I shall come with you, Koyuki-dono!" He ran out of the head to meet her, not even a metre away from the gouge. She smiled sweetly at him, as usually did, and pointed up to the torch of the Statue of Liberty.

"We should scout the area first. Just a quick look around the immediate area."

"A good idea, Koyuki-dono." And with that, the two ninjas leapt from the stone steps of the pyramid into a running landing on the green metal of the statue that protruded from it, with near inhuman speed. Quickly, they reached the hand, and propelled themselves into the near black sky, Koyuki landed neatly on her tip-toes to the highest lick of golden flame of the torch, and Dororo landed neatly, lightly on her shoulder. With the adrenaline sliding fluidly through his veins and the breeze on his face as he flew through the air, the nightmare was momentarily cleansed from his mind, and as he landed gently on his companions shoulder, he felt as though he could still be on Pekopon. And staring out into the barren land...it wasn't_ that_ bad. It had its own beauty, as everything did, no matter how buried under ugly scars of a blood red ground and bruises of a blackened sky.

"We can gather up some hail stones and melt them for water." Koyuki said, pointing to the blood red ground peppered by little white orbs.

"Hmm..." was Dororo's mere answer. He pressed his palms together and twined his fingers into the correct symbol for his Assassin Magic. The land before him bended and warped towards his eyes, or at least, that was how it looked. The casting of '_All-Seeing-Eye_' altered his sight as though his eyeballs were the lenses of a pair of binoculars.

And in the distance, in the very distant distance, even when being viewed with the _'All-Seeing-Eye'_, was a speck. Well, a little more than a speck. But Dororo could see it, and then he intensified the energy being poured from his soul in the magic, seeing the thing that was a little more than a speck a little closer.

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><p>It was a tree. Two trees, actually. Similar to the ones on Pekopon, but too different to even be classed as the same; the trunks were long and thin, like crooked fingers with milky white bark. Instead of leaves, they had dangerously pointed black needles spiking from the base to the tip of the trunk and along the sparse branches. And on the sparse branches were sizeable, balloon shaped, pink things...<em>Fruit. Food.<em>

Dororo immediately jumped down the Statue of Liberty and hot-footed it to the rest of the group, closely, loyally followed by Koyuki. "There is an oasis...of sorts." He announced. It took an amusingly short moment for everyone's eyes to grow as large as a Keronian's.

"Seriously?" Keroro squealed happily "Does it have food? Water?"

"I did not see any, but the trees do bear fruit." Dororo answered "Hopefully, it's edible..."

"How far away is it?" Giroro asked, standing up.

Dororo thought for a moment. Everyone was exhausted from the previous walk and the hail storm, Saburo was even injured, so a trip like this... "Very far." He answered.

"We still have to go," Fuyuki said , "I mean, it's _something._ We can't just starve because it's too far to walk."

"But what about Saburo-senpai?" Natsumi asked. She hadn't left the wounded boy's side since she'd dragged his lifeless, bloodied body out of the near-fatal storm. "He's still too weak to walk."

"Nah, I'm fine." Saburo smiled coolly, getting to his feet with great effort. Then he fell back down. "O-or not..." He mumbled sheepishly, holding his sore head in his hands.

"Saburo-san, you should definitely stay here," Koyuki said, with unusual authority, "and maybe you, Fuyuki-san and Keroro-san, could stay here with him?" She knew perfectly well that the trek to and from the small oasis would be much too far for both of them. And someone would need to stay with Saburo.

"What if something happens?" Giroro huffed "These too can't do much if something dangerous comes at them-"

"Hey!"

"We can't really argue with him, Sergeant."

"-and Saburo won't be able to do much without half his head either."

"Unfortunately very true." Saburo sighed groggily.

"Hmm..." Dororo closed his eyes and thought deeply "Koyuki-dono had the brilliant idea of gathering the hail stones and melting them for water."

"It...It wasn't _that _great an idea, Dororo..." Koyuki blushed. Natsumi didn't even try to hide her grin.

"This is what we could do; we could separate into a base party, scavengers and a third party." Dororo began "The base party shall remain here, where we make camp, to hold the fort and keep stock on supplies of food and water we find. The scavengers will do as their title as search the area for food, water, whatever useful supplies we may find. The third party shall search the area immediately by the base camp, but their main priority will be to protect the base party."

"Protect the base party from _what_?" Natsumi asked.

"...From whatever they might need protecting from." Giroro finished "It's a good idea, Dororo. But now we just need to decide who is in which party."

"Well..." Fuyuki spoke up, making everyone turn to face him as the pacifist boy was never known for having ideas towards military tactics, "...the base party won't do much except for _staying here_, right? So, naturally, those would be the weaker fighters. The scavengers would have to be the physically strongest people to walk long distances and carry stuff and...Protect themselves if they need to. The third party would probably be the second fittest people...I-I guess..."

"Th...That's brilliant Fuyuki-kun." Momoka said in quiet awe.

"Yeah, you could work for the army," Keroro grinned, "as long as it's the _Keron _army!"

"I...I think that would make me a traitor to the Earth, Sergeant." Fuyuki sweatdropped.

"And an outcast from the family." Natsumi added. From the seriousness in her eyes, Fuyuki gulped nervously.

"Back to _the point_..." Giroro grumbled "...Who wants to volunteer to be in the base party?"

Fuyuki automatically raised his hand, and after a few seconds of thought, so did Saburo and Keroro. Upon seeing that the objects of their affections were staying behind, Momoka and Tamama raised their hands.

"Wait, Nishizawa-san," Fuyuki interjected, "you're a lot stronger than me, and Saburo-san since he got hurt. You should probably be in the third party."

"I...Wh...You want me t-to _protect you_?" Momoka squeaked. She wasn't sure to feel happy or upset that it meant _he_ couldn't protect _her_, but she was certainly amazed.

Fuyuki nodded "Yeah, I'd feel safer if the two of you were here to 'Impact' any..._thing_ that tries to eat us."

Dororo's attention snapped to what the Pekoponian said. _Things...eating _them...It re-conjured the horrible, horrible images of his nightmare. But wait. Fuyuki was known to have prophetic dreams as well, was he not? _Could he...? There's no way..._

"What about you, Kururu?" Saburo asked his yellow companion, shaking Dororo from his thoughts "You're not...exactly...the best of fighters. Maybe you should stay behind with us too?"

"Kuuukuku. No way, buddy boy." Kururu snickered "I want to see the rest of this place with my own two peepers."

"That sounds reasonable." Saburo hummed "But if you ever call me '_buddy boy'_ again, I will kill you."

"Ku."

"So...Kururu will be part of the scavenger party, who else?" Fuyuki asked. Giroro, Dororo, Koyuki and Natsumi raised their hands "Okay then...so, to clarify; the scavenger team is you, Corporal, Dororo, Kururu, Sis and Azumaya-san. The base party is Saburo-san, Seargent and I. And the third party is Nishizawa-san and Tamama."

"Are you sure there are enough people in the base and third party?" Natsumi asked, her pretty face crowned with and frown of worry.

"It's what we've got." Keroro answered, rather shortly, "It's kind of a shame that Mois-dono isn't here to help make up the numbers."

"No it isn't." Tamama cut in.

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><p>After organising themselves, double checking the sky for any ominous clouds that could threaten to hit them with super hail, and re-asserting exactly where the supposed oasis is, the scavenger party set off. All through the trek, the heinous thoughts of his nightmare haunted Dororo, despite how perfectly alive Koyuki looked as they walked side-by-side.<p>

Natsumi looked back to the pyramid. They were a good distance from it now, but not too far away that she could still rush back to her little brother and Saburo and the stupid frog. It hurt her chest to think about their short parting words;

_Fuyuki stood up and hugged her "You be careful out there, Sis."_ _He half mumbled._

"_You be careful in here." Natsumi whispered back, gripping his shoulders tighter "Mom will never forgive me if anything happens to you...And I won't forgive myself either."_

"_I...I'll be fine, Natsumi. All I'm doing is staying in here." Natsumi hugged her wonderful, brave, bloody modest, little brother tighter still. _

She rubbed her eyelids to stop any possible tears leaking out. Why did she offer to leave her brother to the elements and surprises and dangers of..._this place_? It's her job to make sure he _wasn't_ alone and vulnerable. Opening her eyes, her focus settled on the small, red frog walking in front of her. His rifle was slung over his shoulder from the leather strap and his pistol was gripped in his hand. He had two weapons, and everyone back at the base camp had none. He had expertise and experience in fighting and defending and everyone back at the base camp didn't.

"...Giroro." The red frog stopped walking to look back over his shoulder at her "...Can you go back to camp and join the third party?"

His hairless eyebrow arched unexpectedly. "I-it's just...I know Momoka-chan and Tamama will look after them...But they're only two people. And Saburo-senpai is hurt anyway, so he might not be able to do much and...and...and Fuyuki's-"

"I understand, Natsumi." Giroro turned and began walking back to camp, "Here, you might need this." He threw Natsumi his rifle, which in human size comparison was just a bit larger than a pistol, and kept his smaller gun for himself. Natsumi looked at the gun in her hand and then to the frog walking away from her.

"Thanks, Giroro!" She called after him, with a big, grateful smile. He didn't look back, but just kept walking.

"_...Please be safe out here, Natsumi."_ Was the only thing running through the soldier's mind.

* * *

><p>"Gaaaah, this is cold, Momochiii!" Tamama whined, picking up another chunk of ice.<p>

"Of course it's cold, it's ice." Momoka replied, trying to give him a light-hearted smile. She had an armful of the hail stones and had to collect even more, even though she was quickly becoming frozen to her bones, much like her alien friend. She bent down to pick up yet another one, and looking back up, she noticed the distant form of one Corporal Giroro.

"Natsumi asked me to be stationed here." He said as he came closer "How much ice have you collected?"

"A _lot_." Tamama replied "We put most of it inside, so it won't melt too quick. There's a little dent in the floor we can use like a sink."

Giroro nodded and looked deep in thought "Best get more. We have no idea how long we're going to be here for."

Suddenly, Keroro popped out of the gap between metal and stone "Oh, Corporal Giroro, are you back?" The green Sergeant trotted down the pyramid steps "That was quick."

Giroro rolled his eyes "If you can't tell, the others are still out there. Natsumi sent me back so you don't get people killed with your stupidity."

"Harsh."

"I'm gonna check on those two..." Giroro ascended the steps.

"O-oh, I'll come with you!" Momoka chirped "I-I've got to put all these in the 'sink' anyway." She gestured to her armful of ice.

When they got to the improvised camp, they kind of wished they hadn't, since they had just walked in on a very..._different_ scene.

Fuyuki was kneeling above Saburo, who was flat on his back on the cold metal, with the waist band of his jeans halfway down his claves and being held in Fuyuki's hands. When they heard the others approach, they immediately looked up, realized they had been seen in such a position, and flushed bright pink.

"So_. Not_. What. It. Looks. Like." Fuyuki said, instantly dropping Saburo's pants and standing up.

"...And _what_ does it look like, Fuyuki-dono?" Keroro sniggered.

"NOT WHAT YOU THINK." Fuyuki's voice went up in pitch several octaves.

"Um-um-Well-I-um-Well-I-I'm-I-should-be-going-then...!" Momoka stuttered, dropped the armful of ice shards in the dent in the floor with the others, and raced outside.

"You should probably go after her," Giroro sighed, "before she becomes _certain_ that you're of...'_the other persuasion_'.

"_Oh great_, another girl at school thinks I'm gay!" Fuyuki wailed, racing out after her "That's the last thing I need!"

"So," Keroro began, looking over to Saburo (who still had his pants down) with a sweatdrop cresting his head, "was that '_what-we-thought_'?"

"Of course not." Saburo shook his head, rather amused at the idea "My trousers don't have pockets in them, so to keep my Reality Pen safe, I hid it in my underwear. Unfortunately, when I tried to get it so I could use it to build a fire, I found that my jeans had shrunk from getting soaked by the rain earlier on. So...I asked Fuyuki-kun if he, while Keroro was out of the room, could help me out of my little predicament."

"Honestly?"

"Honestly. But I do still need to get the pen out of my underwear, so if you wouldn't mind leaving the room for a moment?"

And with that, the two frogs briskly left. "_Dammit," _Giroro thought angrily, "_if Saburo was gay, then I could be there to comfort Natsumi when he came out!Grr..."_

As they descended the pyramid, they could hear Fuyuki and Momoka's conversation- well, they could certainly hear Fuyuki's excuses.

"IT WAS NOT WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE! I SWEAR!"

"It...It's _okay_, Fuyuki-kun...You don't have to deny who you really are."

"BUT I'M NOT! I'M AS STRAIGHT AS A RULER! STRAIGHTER!"

"Fuyuki-kun...It's alright. I won't think any less of you. I'll always be your friend."

"FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, WOMAN, WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO PROVE TO YOU THAT I'M STRAIGHT?"

That certainly caught the attention of _Dark_ Momoka "**Well...For a start you could-**"

"Momochi, no taking advantage of Fukki." Tamama frowned.

**(AN**; Please take no offence to Fuyuki denying that he's gay. Fuyuki just seems like one of those boys who would shout and blush and whatnot about how 'not-gay' he is and I wanted to be true to his character- I meant no offence, and just added this in if anyone thought I did. I...I would write up a mini-essay on gay pride/rights but...yeah, it's unneeded, since everyone knows how lovely/awesome you lot are :) **)**

Suddenly, Giroro's communicator sounded. "_Bzzt-G-crkl-ro...zttzelp needkzzzt..ZTTk..."_

"What?" Giroro pressed the communicator closer to his ear. "SHUT UP!" He roared to the still whingeing Fuyuki. He heard something. He definitely heard something.

"_-ro...Kukuzzt-HELP-bzz-bztk..." _Help. It was Kururu's communicator and it was saying Help. "_Bzzkt-attacked-zxxtk-"_ Attacked. They were being attacked- _She_ was being attacked.

"What's going on Giroro?" Fuyuki asked. His voice was level now and his face was blanched.

"I need to go." The Corporal said urgently.

"Are they in danger?" Fuyuki pressed "Giroro, what's happening to Nee-chan?"

"Giroro!" Keroro, who had gone up to the shelter for water, yelled from the opening "Wh-When Keronians hit their head really bad, they throw up right?"

"What the _hell_ are you talking about?" Giroro roared. He didn't have time for this. His communicator had gone silent.

"Does that rule apply to Pekoponians, too?" Sounds of retching and coughing drifted from the shelter. Keroro looked back and forth quickly, nervously.

"Saburo-san's being sick?" Momoka's voice trembled "That's bad, that's _really bad_, h-he might have concussion or..."

Saburo's being sick and might have concussion and Keroro's yelling out that Giroro has to do something to help him and Tamama's squealing about what do they do and Fuyuki's face is impossibly snow white and he's yelling that Giroro has to something to help Natsumi and Natsumi could be in danger and the communicator's gone silent and

Giroro has no idea what to do, he _has no idea- "QUIET!"_

And they were quiet.

Giroro tried to catch his ragged breath "I'll go...I'll go to help Natumi...and the others..." He turned to Tamama and Keroro "...Y-you two stay here to protect the kids..." He turned to Momoka and Fuyuki "...Do you know how to treat Pekoponian concussion?"

Momoka nodded shakily "I...I used to watch Paul doing the health and safety training with the staff...I-I think I know...I know the basics at least..."

"Right." Giroro nodded. He looked around. Everything was sorted. The communicator was still dead. Giroro nodded again "...Right." He began walking quickly, then remembered that, before the communicator went dead, the words '_need'_ and '_HELP'_ and '_attacked_ ' had been said. Kururu said '_need_' and then he swore, he _swore,_ it was Natsumi screaming '_HELP'_ and Kururu again, saying '_attacked'_, much too calm. And with no laughing.

Giroro began running...Faster than he ever had done, faster than he ever thought he could.


End file.
